Exploring ecological determinants of disease vector distributions: a multi-scalar investigation

The world’s rapidly changing climate is influencing how insects can transmit dangerous infectious diseases – from malaria to dengue fever and other previously unknown diseases – to humans. The rapid growth of new data sources from satellites to ground based sensors offer unprecedented opportunities to link these data with knowledge of the biology of insects that can transmit infectious diseases. To harness the public health value of these opportunities, a summary of knowledge pertaining to the biology of important insect populations (i.e. Aedes mosquitos) is needed to inform the development of automated models that can predict and anticipate when these diseases are most likely to affect human populations. After testing and validating these models, they could be used to guide public health education in real-time to
individuals or public health organizations around the world.

Faculty Supervisor:

Manisha Kulkarni

Student:

Partner:

BlueDot Inc

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Ottawa

Program: